The house they live in is compared to the barn they already have. from "the revolt of mother"

It seems as though there should be choices for this answer, but none are listed. However, the house they lived in was very small, old, and a shack compared to the barn. The father went and built a new barn on the homestead instead of fixing up the home for his wife and children. The daughter, Penny, had a room the size of horses stall. The parents had been married for 40 years and he had never built a new house as promised. The wallpaper on the walls was peeling and falling down, the stairway was crooked and the room the mother gave birth in and slept in for 40 years was only big enough for a bed and a chest of drawers. The mother got tired of living this way and one day emptied all of the belongings in the home to the new barn the husband had built. She decided she had enough and made the new huge barn, that wasn't needed, her new home after living in a shack for 40 years. 

Hydrophobia (fear of or aversion to water).